NINE health boards are missing the Scottish Government's key waiting times target for cancer patients despite a support team being sent in to improve results.

Insiders said rising numbers of patients and a difficulty recruiting specialist doctors in some areas are among the problems which have left hospitals struggling to offer everyone timely treatment.

The latest figures show 92.9 per cent of patients urgently referred to hospital with a suspicion of cancer between April and June this year started treatment within two months.

This is better than the previous quarter, when the figure was 91.5 per cent, but it is behind the target of 95 per cent and still one of the worst performances of recent years.

Ministers sent a special support team into struggling boards to help them speed up access to treatment in March.

Elspeth Atkinson, director of Macmillan Cancer Support in Scotland, said: "It is incredibly disappointing to see cancer waiting times being missed again. The earlier people are diagnosed, the better their longer-term survival chances."

The health boards missing the target were Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Grampian, Tayside, Highland, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Ayrshire and Arran, Shetland and Western Isles.